Eligibility

Legal Definition

Eligibility, * Capacity to be elected.

2. Citizens are in general eligible to all offices; the exceptions arise from the want of those qualifications which the constitution requires; these are such as regard his person, his property, or relations to the state.

3.- 1. In. general, no person is eligible to any office, until he has attained the full age of twenty-one years; no one can be elected a senator of the United States, who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, been a 'citizen of th e United States nine years and who shall not be an inhabitant of the, state for which he shall be chosen. Const. art. 1, s. 3. No person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, is eligible to the office of president, and no person shall be eligible to that office, who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. Const. art. 2, s. 1.

4. - 2. A citizen may be ineligible in consequence of his relations to the state; for example, holding an office incompatible with the office sought. Vide Ineligibility. Because he has not paid the taxes the law requires; because he has not resided a sufficient length of time in the state.

5. - 3. He may be ineligible for want of certain property qualifications required by some, law.